Join Magnum for a presentation and discussion between Bieke Depoorter, who recently became a full member of Magnum Photos, and Max Pinckers, who recently joined Magnum as a nominee. Chaired by Shoair Mavlian, Curator, Tate Modern, the discussion will focus on the individual practice of Magnum's new photographers, from traditional photojournalism to a more art based approach to personal projects; and will explore what the world renowned Magnum Photos agency means to contemporary practitioners today.

Belgian photographer Bieke Depoorter captures the privacy of people whom she meets by chance and she gets to invite her into their homes. In 2009, she travelled through Russia and later pursued a similar long-term project in the United States. Ou Menya and I am about to call it a day series were published by Lannoo and Patrick Frey and Hannibal. Depoorter joined Magnum Photos as a nominee in 2012, became an associate member in 2014 and a full member in 2016.

Not believing in the possibility of sheer objectivity or neutrality, Max Pinckers advocates a manifest subjective approach, which is made visible through the explicit use of theatrical lighting, stage directions or extras. Growing up in Indonesia, India, Australia and Singapore, Pinckers returned to Belgium in 2008, his native country, to study documentary photography at the School of Arts / KASK, where he is currently a doctoral researcher. His last book ‘Lotus’, was published in 2016 by Lyre Press.

Shoair Mavlian is a curator at Tate Modern, London, focusing primarily on photography. Shoair researches acquisitions for the international collection whilst curating exhibitions and displays across Tate Modern. She curated the major exhibition The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection (Tate Modern, 2016), Conflict, Time, Photography (Tate Modern, 2014) and the collaborative exhibition Project Space: A Chronicle of Interventions (Tate Modern and TEOR/éTica, Costa Rica, 2014). Shoair has also worked on many of the photography displays of the permanent collection across Tate Modern including New Documentary Forms (2011), Lewis Baltz and Carl Andre (2012), Harry Callahan (2013), Charlotte Posenenske and Ursula Schulz-Dornburg (2014) and Close Up: Identity and the Photographic Portrait (2015). Recent independent curatorial projects include the exhibition Don McCullin: Looking Beyond the Edge (Arles 2016) and In flux (Kanellopoulos Cultural Centre, Greece, 2015).

This event is part of the Magnum Photos Now talks programme at the Barbican Centre. Tickets can be purchased from the Barbican Centre here.

Magnum Photos is a photographic cooperative of great diversity and distinction owned by its photographer members. With powerful individual vision, Magnum photographers chronicle the world and interpret its peoples, events, issues and personalities.